Brahma Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Fresno

Really wish I had taken more pics but here's three of the tandoori chicken. I took multiple cause it was sizzling and steaming but I guess my camera couldn't capture that correctly (yes I know that is standard, just wanted to try to capture it).

BACKGROUND: Went with my dad who is visiting from Scotland (the UK does Indian food EXTREMELY well). He was a bit apprehensive at first cause of how good it is over there and I've spent over 60 days there visiting and LOVE the food over there (munchy box FTW!). I used Yelp to try to find the best rated Indian restaurant like I normally do and we drove around for at least 30 minutes to three other restaurants that turned out to be closed even though Google said they were open (I'll edit those hours if I remember to). Finally found Brahma Bull and decided to call to verify they were open before we drove any further. They obviously were.

THE RESTAURANT/SERVICE: The Google Maps directions were a bit off and it was kind of hard to find... spent about 10 minutes driving through parking lots trying to locate it, but we are both damn glad we didn't give up. It honestly looks like a little "hole-in-the-wall" bar from the outside but don't let that fool you. At first arrival the service seemed a bit lacking but improved over a short period of time and lasted throughout. The inside was fairly typical of an Indian restaurant, not at all bad in any way, a bit small but I honestly prefer a "cozy-er" environment because it likely means they're spending less on rent and more on quality ingredients. My only wish for this aspect would be the timing when the female owner came out at the very end when we were leaving and began speaking to us and telling us about her family and showing us pictures. I absolutely LOVE interacting with owners/chefs about the food, family, and history. I only wish she had came out and introduced herself when we were having drinks waiting to order/waiting for our food. THAT'S when I wanna know about the food, family, and restaurant! I would have loved to have spoken to her more then.

THE FOOD: I got the Tandoori Chicken meal and my dad got the Garlic Chicken Curry meal. We also took advantage of the Yelp deal for a free serving of veggie samosas with the order of two combo meals. The meals came with Sambar, chutneys, rice, naan, payasam, and probably something else I'm forgetting... literally EVERYTHING was SO GOOD!!! The Tandoori Chicken was a bit different than what I've learned to love in terms of flavor but I would definitely go back and order it again. It had a nice kick to it and a good smoky flavor. The garlic and onion naan was particularly great; just the perfect amount of crunchy in certain parts with nice and soft in the others. The green chutney was A+++! The tamarind was good too but that's never been my favorite. I tried a bit of my dads Garlic Chicken Curry and DAMN I'm going to steal some of what we couldn't finish and took home when he goes to bed! Only thing I could criticize about the food is that the Poori wasn't as poofy as I'm used to; I'm used to it being almost as round as a basketball (but seriously, if that's the worst I can say about the food then, lol, who cares about such a minuscule detail??).

THE VERDICT: I'll keep this one part short, sweet, and simple: I've found my favorite Indian restaurant...

It was 2.00 pm when we went to Brahma Bill. We waited for 15 mins , some one who came after us got the table , not sure why .When we asked the person who(he is the only one who is serving / cashier/ cleaning/ waiting tables ) asked us to wait there he realized we were there before . So another 15 mins , got a table .(30 mins) . When we passed another 20 mins (so far 50mins ) playing I spy with my daughter , a girl came to take order . We mentioned about the waiting and she said they are short handed at that moment .We ordered Thalis and Chana Bathura for our daughter . After 20 mins (1 hr 10 mins) , my daughter said when she went to rest room she heard that girl mentioning about our order . We were still waiting ( at this point we thought May be we should leave … then again we already placed our order .. so … gave another chance ).An elderly couple who were waiting next to our table asked about their sambar for 3 rd time, ( till then since their idli was looking dry we thought may be they are waiting for their bill… ). Uncle got angry and he said he doesn’t want to eat any more just get the bill and he also mentioned that going there was a mistake and that will be his last visit to that place .Finally we got our food after 25 mins ( 1 hr 35 mins ).chicken curry was so bland , it’s like adding cooked chicken to boiled water with spices .you don’t have to be a great cook to make basic chicken .Tried Rasam( this is the most easiest recipe which anybody can make ) , it’s like hot water with chili powder , no salt .we haven’t even tried the other items in Thali . Chicken 65 - I never knew we can add that much vinegar , rock salt and butter in that recipe .So took a bite of everything( our bill was $85) and packed in to go boxes , we gave the food to a homeless person who was waiting there ( sorry man ! ). Went to a near by subway and had our sandwiches which we should have done in the first place . That might have saved us 2 .5 hours of our drive and 85$ bill.My advice to you - FIRST LEARN HOW TO COOK...

The management has recently changed from what I heard. Not sure how much of this has affected the experience of the diners at this restaurant. We had a pretty bad experience with what we ordered (uthapam , dinner thali). They served coconut, tomato chutney and sambhar with uthapam. Both the chutneys were stale, it was served straight from the refrigerator, the tomato chutney went bad, it was not edible and not acceptable, the coconut chutney though stale was still edible (no tadka at all), we however chose not to consume those. They probably ran out of sambhar and hence mixed raw tamarind juice before serving and that was a big turn off and the worst part was the owner wasn’t ready to accept it had raw tamarind when we all could clearly taste it (we are those South Indians whose bread and butter is Sambhar , so we know all about it). He has to check with his cooks on what they do to meet the demands of the customers. These last minute tricks to scale with the demand is not going to work in the long run.

On the positive side, the owner was accommodating even when we reached during the closing hours. The owner doesn’t seem to receive criticism positively, this is critical if they think pleasing customers is important.On the whole, wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone . Total...